Brian Pratt - Fires of prophesy

Miko shudders at the memory as he gets his bowl of food and cup of water to drink. He hungrily consumes it all, wanting more, but knowing better to ask. After all the bowls and cups are collected, they get moving.

He can’t remember how long he’s been walking in the line, the days are a blur of pain and exhaustion. The only thing keeping him moving is the certainty that James will come. He will! he insists to himself.

It’s early in the afternoon when a commotion draws his attention to the front of the line. Looking up, he sees them pointing to a large body of water coming into view ahead. A large city sits on its shore.

“Korazan,” announces one of the slavers. “There you will be placed at auction and sold to your new masters.”

A hushed silence falls upon all of them as they continue marching toward Korazan, dreading what fate may befall them there.

Every last person in line is quiet when they pass through the gates of Korazan. Miko looks around at the people in the streets and notices that they don’t even look at them there in the slave lines. It’s almost as if they aren’t even people to them.

They’re taken through to a large complex at the edge of town, holding pens for those awaiting the auction block. There, Miko is removed from his line and the slavers begin separating the captives by age and sex. He’s herded into a holding pen with other boys and young men.

Several fights break out by those being separated from wives and children, but in the end they go where they’re told, usually with blood running down their backs from the numerous lashings required to subdue them.

Once they’ve been in their pen for awhile, one of the lads a few years older than Miko comes over to him and says in a whisper, “We gotta get out of here!”

Miko just looks at him and asks, “How?”

“Rush the guard, or something,” he says.

“I don’t think it would do any good,” Miko tells him.

Obviously not getting any support for his idea from Miko, the lad goes over to another group of boys where he can hear them whispering amongst themselves. I hope they don’t do anything stupid to get me killed, he thinks as he glances over to the older boys, huddled with their heads together.

He gazes over to the other pens in the area and sees many such as his, holding young boys and men. The women and girls must have been taken elsewhere for he doesn’t see any sign of them.

Another young man in the pen with him comes over and says, “Wonder what’s going to happen now?”

Shrugging, Miko says, “Don’t know.”

“Name’s Viktor,” he says holding out his hand.

Taking the hand, he replies, “Miko.”

Viktor glances over to the group of boys who are conversing together quietly. “Think they’re right?” he asks.

“What? Those guys?” Miko asks, indicating the group planning escape.

When Viktor nods his head, he says, “I doubt it. I would think the slavers are going to anticipate something like that, they’ve been doing this for a long time.”

“But what choice do we have?” Viktor asks, his voice trembling slightly.

“Right now, none,” he replies.

Viktor starts sobbing, “I want to go home!”

“So do we all,” Miko says, uncomfortable at the show of emotion Viktor is displaying.

Viktor goes back over to a corner and sits down by himself, with his knees up and lays his head in his arms, silently crying.

Doing his best to hold back his own emotions, Miko sits and stares out of the pen.

An hour passes before several slavers come and bring them food and water, as well as a bucket for use as a slop bucket. When they get close to the door of his pen, the boys from the group move closer to the door and Miko gets set for trouble. Two of the slavers have crossbows, armed and casually aimed at the boys while another says, “Back up!”

When the boys don’t move, he signals the crossbowmen who take direct aim on them and then he says again, “Back up.”

With two crossbows staring down at them, the boys back up several feet, allowing him to open the door and place a platter of bread and old meat on the floor. Stepping back, he closes the door and then proceeds down to the next pen.

When the door shuts, Miko dives for the food and grabs himself two big handfuls of meat and bread before the other boys have a chance to take it. The meat is a little ripe but the bread is only slightly stale. Not caring, he wolfs it down quickly before someone gets it into his head to take it away from him.

Two of the boys are left with nothing to eat, one of them is Viktor. He just sits and stares at the empty plate, as if not believing that there’s nothing for him. Miko sees him start to say something to one of the slavers, but then he remembers the girl that had complained on the road and shuts his mouth. Rolling onto his side, he gets into a fetal position and starts sobbing all over again.

The other boys look on him with disdain, and one of them says, “You better be faster next time.” The others just laugh. Miko feels bad for the boy but is unwilling to share his meager food with him. Even though he got as much as his hands could grab, it still wasn’t enough to quiet the grumbling of his belly.

Miko goes over to a small window that overlooks a large inner courtyard. Looking out, he sees a large platform on the other side that looks like it could be used for auctions, though it’s empty now.

Smelling something foul, he turns around and sees one of the boys using the slop bucket and he thinks it could get pretty ripe in here after a while. Leaving the window, he finds a spot as far from the bucket as possible and settles down to rest. The light outside is beginning to fade as night falls.

During the night, he hears many of the boys crying and sobbing all around him, some crying out for their mothers. He eventually breaks down too, as silent tears roll down his cheek. One boy in a nearby pen loses it and starts screaming and trying to break through the bars.

Suddenly, the door at the end of the pens opens up and two slavers come in with torches and long sticks. They move to the pen where the boy is screaming uncontrollably and opens the door. As soon as the door opens, the boy tries to leave and that’s when they start beating him with sticks until he quiets down. Either he stopped on his own accord, or they beat him into unconsciousness, Miko couldn’t tell but he was glad when the screaming ended.

Once the guards left and it was again dark and quiet, he begins to hear whispers coming from others in his pen.

“…there were only two of them…”

“…no crossbows…”

“…might be our only chance…”

He hears some of the boys begin to move toward the door and then lie down near it. All of a sudden, one of them begins to act just like that other boy, screaming and banging on the door trying to get out.

Just as before, the two guards enter the pen area and open the door to their pen. When the door opens, the slavers rush in and begin beating the one who’s crying out. With the landing of the first blow, all the boys who had stationed themselves by the door spring up and attack the two slavers. In short order, the slavers lie on the ground unconscious at the boys’ feet.

The boys, now with the torches and sticks, and filled with hope of escape race out of the pen. Miko stays where he is and watches as they race down the hallway toward the open door the slavers had entered through. Suddenly, he sees one fall backward as a crossbow bolt strikes him in the chest. Another boy twists about then falls with a cry when another bolt strikes him in the shoulder.

Soon the hallway is filled with slavers and the ill fated escape attempt is soon squashed. The boys caught outside of the pen are taken away and a couple slavers come back to where Miko and a few of the others had remained. They remove the unconscious slavers the boys had attacked and then begin to leave. One slaver pauses a moment as he looks at those remaining in the pen and then says something before closing the door to Miko’s pen. He turns to follow his fellow slavers across the room and through the door, closing it behind him. When the door closes, the pens are once more plunged into darkness.